Thomas C. Neibaur

Thomas Croft Neibaur (May 17, 1898 – December 23, 1942) was the first Latter-day Saint (Mormon) to receive the Medal of Honor. He was also the first soldier from Idaho to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Neibaur was an automatic rifleman who served in France during World War I. On October 16, 1918, while in battle at Côté de Chatillion, while trying to eliminate a machine gun nest, Neibaur became surrounded by 15 German soldiers. With a pistol, Neibaur killed four, and captured eleven. He received six medals for his bravery and heroic exploits, as well as the Purple Heart.

Afflicted by the Great Depression, Neibaur had little money and could not feed his family, which caused him to send his medals to Congress with a note stating, "I cannot eat them." Neibaur died three years later of tuberculosis. Thomas C. Neibaur Veteran Park was dedicated in Sugar City, Idaho with a monument commemorating Neibaur. His war medals are held by the Idaho State Historical Society.

Family and early life Thomas Neibaur was born in Sharon, Bear Lake County, Idaho, the ninth of ten children of James C. Neibaur (1862–1938) and Elizabeth Croft Neibaur (1863–1938). Thomas' grandfather, Joseph W. Neibaur (1835–1927), settled in Paris, Idaho in the 1880s. In August 1907, Neibaur was baptized into the LDS Church. After completing training and organization at Camp Merritt, New Jersey, the division deployed to France, where it provided replacement troops for other units of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). Neibaur was assigned to Company M, 167th Infantry Regiment of the 42nd Division.

Campaigns and battles Neibaur was a private and served as an automatic rifleman using the French manufactured Chauchat 8mm automatic rifle using a "banana clip" of 20 rounds. In February he went into the lines on the Lunéville sector, and then later in March at the Baccarat sector. He did not see any real combat except for artillery fire until March 1918, once the German "Ludendorff Offensive" commenced on March 21, 1918.

Later life Neibaur spent several months in field hospitals recovering from his wounds. His last wound by a German machine gun bullet remained in his hip the rest of his life. Neibaur also represented the first private in the U.S. Army to receive the Medal of Honor. On February 9, 1919, at the AEF headquarters at Chaumont, France, Pershing presented the Medal of Honor to him, along with a dozen other officers and soldiers. (The others were Johannes S.) Anderson, Donald M. Call, George Dilboy, Harold A. Furlong, George H. Mallon, Sidney E. Manning, Harold W. Roberts, Charles W. Whittlesey, and Samuel Woodfill. Discouraged by his misfortune, Neibaur mailed his Medal of Honor and other decorations to Congress in Washington stating that "I cannot eat them." Local newspapers covered the story. Three days later he secured a position as a night security officer at the state capitol in Boise. His wife Lois died in 1940, at the age of forty-eight from complications of rheumatic fever she had contracted in childhood. His awards and decorations were returned to Mrs. Lillian Neibaur who donated them to the Idaho State Historical Society.

Military decorations

Individual decorations

United States of America: Medal of Honor Purple Heart Croix de Guerre (Cross of War)

Official Campaign Designations:

Information retrieved from Place the Headstones Where They Belong.